Late city: a novel
Description
A 115-year-old man lies on his deathbed as the 2016 election results arrive, and revisits his life in this moving story of love, fatherhood, and the American century from Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler.
A visionary and poignant novel centered around former newspaperman Sam Cunningham as he prepares to die, Late City covers much of the early twentieth century, unfurling as a conversation between the dying man and a surprising God. As the two review Sam's life, from his childhood in the American South and his time in the French trenches during World War I to his fledgling newspaper career in Chicago in the Roaring Twenties and the decades that follow, snippets of history are brought sharply into focus.
Sam grows up in Louisiana, with a harsh father, who he comes to resent both for his physical abuse and for what Sam eventually perceives as his flawed morality. Eager to escape and prove himself, Sam enlists in the army as a sniper while still underage. The hardness his father instilled in him helps him make it out of World War I alive, but, as he recounts these tales on his deathbed, we come to realize that it also prevents him from contending with the emotional wounds of war. Back in the U.S., Sam moves to Chicago to begin a career as a newspaperman that will bring him close to all the major historical turns of the twentieth century. There he meets his wife and has a son, whose fate counters Sam's at almost every turn.
As he contemplates his relationships—with his parents, his brothers in arms, his wife, his editor, and most importantly, his son—Sam is amazed at what he still has left to learn about himself after all these years in this heart-rending novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner.
Subjects
Families -- Fiction
Family relationships
Fathers and sons
Fathers and sons -- Fiction
Historical fiction
Older men
Older men -- Family relationships -- Fiction
Older men -- Fiction
Reminiscing in old age
Reminiscing in old age -- Fiction
Veterans
Veterans -- Fiction
World War, 1914-1918
World War, 1914-1918 -- Veterans -- Fiction
More Details
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Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | 11d9f667-8b67-6cb6-f619-ea047d0906ff |
---|---|
Grouping Title | late city |
Grouping Author | robert olen butler |
Grouping Category | book |
Grouping Language | English (eng) |
Last Grouping Update | 2024-12-11 18:26:43PM |
Last Indexed | 2024-12-21 05:47:57AM |
Solr Fields
Fathers and sons -- Fiction
Historical fiction
Older men -- Family relationships -- Fiction
Older men -- Fiction
Reminiscing in old age -- Fiction
Veterans -- Fiction
World War, 1914-1918 -- Veterans -- Fiction
Family relationships
Fathers and sons
Older men
Reminiscing in old age
Veterans
World War, 1914-1918
Solr Details Tables
item_details
Bib Id | Item Id | Shelf Location | Call Num | Format | Format Category | Num Copies | Is Order Item | Is eContent | eContent Source | eContent URL | Detailed Status | Last Checkin | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ils:.b20989003 | .i34438877 | Cable Adult Fiction | FIC BUT | 1 | false | false | Available | Feb 02, 2023 | cafic |
record_details
Bib Id | Format | Format Category | Edition | Language | Publisher | Publication Date | Physical Description | Abridged |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ils:.b20989003 | Book | Books | First edition | English | Atlantic Monthly Press | 2021 | 290 pages ; 24 cm |
scoping_details_cable
Bib Id | Item Id | Grouped Status | Status | Locally Owned | Available | Holdable | Bookable | In Library Use Only | Library Owned | Is Home Pick Up Only | Holdable PTypes | Bookable PTypes | Home Pick Up PTypes | Local Url |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ils:.b20989003 | .i34438877 | On Shelf | Available | false | true | true | false | false | true | false | 9999 |